Traditionally base stations or cells in wireless networks, such as cellular radio communication networks, have been transmitting continuously on some carriers, for instance on known broadcast carriers, i.e. on known and dedicated carrier frequencies.
In this way mobile stations have been able to determine which base stations or cells are in their neighbourhood through merely scanning all possible carriers and frequencies, detect data identifying the base station or cell in question and then connect to the network via the most suitable base station.
However, in future networks, such as future versions of LTE (Long Term Evolution) it is of interest for the base stations to be silent in a cell for long durations of time, typically much longer than the ordinary frame length used for ordinary communication.
This also makes it harder for mobile stations to locate such carriers and consequently also to connect to a radio communication network.
The present invention is directed towards improving on this situation, when base stations are silent during long periods of time.